The Enrollment Management Team (EMT) held its first meeting of the academic year from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. on August 29, 2000. Present for the meeting were Ruth Ann Balla, Celeste Brogdon, Sandra Close, Bill Cox, Lori Duke, Rebecca Duncan, Gordon Folger, Ann Gleason, Sue Kearney, Carol Kercheval, Jeannie Morelock, and LaRose Spooner, Chair.

The minutes of the meeting on June 6^th were approved, with the addition of Sandra Close as a member in attendance. LaRose distributed a current membership list (copy attached to official minutes) and a copy of the Enrollment Management Team Report 1999-2000 (copy on file along with the minutes). As Celeste’s report was accidentally omitted from the printed booklet, a copy of her section was given to the members and has been inserted into the file copy.

Ann spoke about the transition that entering freshmen are making to Meredith. She indicated that move-in activities, orientation, and registration all went smoothly and that the freshmen have been positive and participatory in their attitudes. The new timing of the dinner at the President’s residence was a good change in the orientation schedule. There is some feeling on the campus that the criteria for selecting the book for the freshman reading program needs to be reviewed, as some faculty considered this year’s choice rather simplistic and fewer faculty members agreed to be discussion facilitators. Bill commented that the year started smoothly in the financial aid office, due in part to the information that students and parents received over the summer which helped to alleviate questions and problems. In the past few weeks, his office has helped some continuing students who had done nothing about applying for financial aid. In the coming year Bill plans to focus on educating students about the application deadlines and the importance of applying early. Ruth Ann reported that the Technical Services staff was swamped during orientation; students received their e-mail addresses over the summer and were eager to get their accounts activated. More technical staff will likely need to be on hand during the weekend when students arrive next year.

Sue distributed a preliminary report on the fall enrollment and profiles of the Honors Program participants and the Teaching Fellows (a copy of each report is attached to the official minutes). She commented that the total enrollment will not meet last year’s record number but that the total credit hours will likely be greater because there are more full-time undergraduate students. While the outcomes will not match the various enrollment projections, the overall result will be such that the budget should be met or exceeded. Sue thanked the members for their assistance during June in calling students who had not pre-registered and commended the 23+ Program staff for extending the application deadline to accommodate some additional new students. Reports on the outcomes of the telemarketing project are attached to the official minutes.

The EMT discussed ways in which the numbers of students for the spring semester might be maximized. The graduate programs and the 23+ Program are areas for which increased advertising and recruitment should produce more new students. Jeannie will work with the graduate programs to investigate the possibility of a GMAT Search project and of potential follow-up contacts with alumnae in the area. Carol will present strategies for recruiting 23+ Program students at the next meeting. Traditional freshmen and transfers are more difficult to recruit for the spring semester, but increased follow-up with applicants could prove helpful. Retention efforts need to be maximized also. Ann will discuss retention strategies at the next meeting; LaRose and Sue will communicate with potential re-admission candidates and students on a leave of absence.

Ruth Ann reported that the students in the Lap-Top Initiative Project were excited and appreciative. For next year, she anticipates that the roll-out will take place earlier in the orientation period and that training will be done in three-hour blocks, with approximately 100 students in a block. Ruth Ann indicated that about 45 faculty members have been trained for using Blackboard and are now able to use this software to web-enhance their courses. She indicated that the admissions office has now gone live on Datatel and that the staff is working with prospects and applicants for Fall 2001 in this new program. Registration is scheduled to be implemented on Datatel in Fall 2001, which means that pre-registration goes live in Spring 2001.

A discussion took place concerning the process that students must follow for dropping and adding a course. Students often have difficulty in tracking down professors to obtain the required signatures. LaRose and Sandra will talk with the Registrar’s Office to determine if the process can be improved.

EMT goals that were established for 1999-2000 were discussed. Some of the outcomes thus far and suggested actions for the future are recorded below:

• A suggestion was made that the new Director of the Graduate School (or some other representative of the program) join the EMT in the spring semester.
• The updated alumnae directory should be published and available in December, which should help expand knowledge of professional outcomes of graduates.
• A group of peer and aspirant institutions have been identified by Dr. Hartford and the Senior Management Team, and the Office of Enrollment Planning and Institutional Effectiveness has generated a number of benchmarking studies. The report entitled "Admissions, Enrollment, and Other Characteristics" was distributed to the members (copy attached to the official minutes).
• The committee to examine web issues will report to the Senior Management Team next week. It was noted that the College still needs to establish policies for how the whole structure is used.
• Jeannie will work with residence life on a marketing piece that will address the benefits of on- campus living. Concerns were expressed about the number of juniors who moved off campus for this year.
• The responses received thus far to the recommendations for retention strategies will be sent to EMT members. Sue indicated that the team would likely want to review those to see what, if anything else, should be done about the recommendations.
• The EMT members expressed continuing support for the College’s taking a more consistent, coordinated, deliberate approach to experiential learning.

It was further suggested that the 1998-99 goal of implementing a policy that would allow the use of credit cards for paying tuition, etc. be re-activated now that Datatel is becoming a reality.

LaRose informed the group that she would like for the EMT to adopt a theme for the year that centers on enrollment services and attitudes that would serve both recruitment and retention purposes. High service standards and expectations would be at the center of this approach – what our students and campus guests expect of the experience they have here and what we expect to provide to ensure that they have the high quality experience we want them to have. LaRose, Jeannie and Sue are working on a structure for this approach to EMT operations and will present more information at the October meeting.

The next meeting was scheduled for 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. on October 12^th. The meeting was adjourned after the group enjoyed a delightful lunch.